Reid agrees to coach Thailand

(GETTY IMAGES)

Former England international Peter Reid has agreed to become Thailand's national team coach and will sign a four-year contract next month, the country's soccer president said on Thursday.

Reid, the former Sunderland, Leeds United and Manchester City manager, would start work on 1 September and his task was to guide Thailand to their first World Cup finals in 2014, Worawi Makudi told Reuters.

"It is confirmed, we have agreed a deal," said Worawi, who met with Reid's agent on Wednesday.

"He is the one we wanted, he has a lot of experience and I'm confident we will have success with Peter in charge. His background in England as a coach and as a player will be invaluable to us."

Reid replaces Charnwit Polcheewin, who resigned last month when Thailand were eliminated from 2010 World Cup qualifiers after a campaign where they lost all but one of six matches.

Reid, who was recommended by England's Football Association, will travel to the Kingdom next month to sign the contract, and will also be tasked with setting up provincial youth programmes to develop future national team players.

It had yet to be decided whether Reid would be allowed to bring his own assistant, most likely to be former England defender Viv Anderson, said Worawi.

They are hoping to persuade former captain Tawan Sripan, who ended his 14-year career with the national side last month, to join Reid's coaching staff.

Thailand's previous foreign coaches have enjoyed only limited success, with several blaming their failure on cultural differences, intervention by federation officials and players' poor discipline.

Worawi said Thailand had long-term plans for Reid, who would be given plenty of time to prove his worth.

"I want to give him time to build the team and take them to a higher level," he said.

"This won't be easy, we have to give him a chance and that's why we have offered him a long contract.

"We have wasted time before, this time, we want to give ourselves the best chance," Worawi added.

Reid inherits a team of mostly local-based players from Thailand's semi-professional league, some of whom supplement their income with other jobs.